No. 1 Harlan girls rout Panthers

HARLAN — The Creston girls found out firsthand Tuesday night why the Harlan Cyclones are ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 4A.

They Cyclones held a 32-3 lead early in the second quarter en route to a 50-7 advantage at halftime, easily brushing the Panthers aside in a 69-17 win.

“They aren’t ranked No. 1 for nothing,” Creston head coach Larry McNutt said. “When you’re 6-2, 6-1 and they aren’t big girls who just stand under the basket — they can move and shoot. Their guards are good. They can knock down open shots. Their point guard gets good penetration.

“They haven’t had a game within 40 points yet,” he continued. “They’re just really good.”

Creston picked a bad night to have an off night shooting the ball, converting just 7-of-44 (15 percent) field goal attempts. The Panthers also turned the ball over 26 times.

“We didn’t come out and play very good early,” McNutt said. “We had some turnovers, missed laypus. That just kind of opened the floodgates.”

Jenna Taylor led the Panthers with six points, while Natalie Mostek grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

Creston falls to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in Hawkeye 10 Conference play, while Harlan improves to 4-0 and 2-0.

The Panthers hit the road again Friday, traveling to Kuemper Catholic. Varsity game time is scheduled for 6 p.m.

The Creston freshmen dropped to 1-5 for the season with a 53-23 loss to Harlan on Tuesday.

“JV played hard and had some good stops on defense, but was unable to score off those steals,” Creston JV coach Mendy McCreight said. “We were getting good looks, but couldn’t get the ball to fall into the hoop.”

Cammy Rutherford led the Panthers with 10 points, while Sadie Jones grabbed 10 rebounds to go with five steals.

After a slow start, the Creston freshmen played even with Harlan, but couldn’t dig out of the hole in a 56-22 loss here Friday.

The Panther freshmen now stand at 2-2 for the season.

“Freshmen got off to a bad start with too many turnovers,” Creston freshman coach Mendy McCreight said. “The third quarter, we finally did things well and played well against them as we scored 16 points to their 17.”

Cammy Rutherford scored a team-high 10 points in the loss, while Madison Callahan grabbed five rebounds.